At Rajiv Chowk, an interchange station that sees huge crowds, the State Bank of Patiala ‘Money Shoppe’ has long lines at all hours.

With ATMs in Metro stations facing a cash crunch, many commuters who try to withdraw money on their way to and from work have been facing disappointment. Even ATMs that do work have long queues outside.

At Rajiv Chowk, an interchange station that sees huge crowds, the State Bank of Patiala ‘Money Shoppe’ has long lines at all hours. “There are 10 other ATMs in the station but this is the only one that has been working for the last two weeks,” says Nagesh Kumar, the security guard.

On Friday afternoon, over 80 people who were waiting in the queue were left fuming when the machine faced a glitch. In the 30 minutes it took to reset the machine, bank staff had to face irate customers. “I’ve been standing here for over an hour. I can see the bank staff counting money but they say there is no money,” said 23-year-old Kamal Kishore.

Assistant Branch Manager Pooja Kajla said technical glitches cannot be helped. “People start getting angry if there is any delay. What am I supposed to do if there is a glitch in the machine?” she said.

Subhash Tomar (30) said he came to Rajiv Chowk Metro station from Dilshad Garden “especially to get money from this ATM”. His usually travels on the Red Line from his Dilshad Garden residence, but he switched to the Yellow Line to get to Rajiv Chowk.

“I had to go to Tis Hazari two times in the last week and someone told me that this ATM has money. I didn’t find any other ATM working anywhere on the Metro line so I decided to come here,” said Tomar.

At the Central Secretariat Metro station, another major interchange station, four ATMs — two of SBI and one of HDFC and Yes Bank — stood empty. “They haven’t loaded cash here since Wednesday night,” said Arti, who works at a nearby kiosk.